Almost Heaven

By- An Unknown Foreign Beauty

Chapter 8- Sand in the Wind

Sunlight spilled through the balcony, making the golden draperies of her chamber sparkle. A warm wind blew, carrying the blissful scent of the garden and chipping of the morning birds. But despite the idyllic moment, Jasmine's brows were furrowed, her thoughts troubled.

Dalia kept watching the princess. She had been pacing since her return. She had a heated argument with her father, her secret escapes had been exposed, and the boy she liked was thrown in the dungeon. Surely, she had many things to worry about. Now Dalia worried that she might dig a hole in the Persian carpet on the floor.

Suddenly she stopped. "I need to find him." She announced.

"Are you planning to escape again?" Dalia frowned, looking at the guards at the door, not really liking their presence, "There are five more of them today. The sultan will not be happy."

Jasmine looked over the guards and gave Dalia an impatient glare. "I know, it is my fault," she admitted. "I should just stay put and wait for Baba to calm down. But the vizier may not wait. I am afraid he might do something to Aladdin. Do you understand…?" Her voice trailed off.

Dalia shook her head. "Yes," she said. "But the grand vizier is a dangerous man. You must not go against him. Besides your action will put the boy into more danger than he already is."

Jasmine sighed. She knew that going against the grand vizier was the craziest idea she ever had. The man had not only her father but also everyone in the royal household under his control. She knew that complaining to Dalia wouldn't bring any solution. And she knew that in the grand scheme of things, it could have been a lot worse. Her father was already angry with her, her reputation had already been ruined, and Aladdin was in danger. What more she had to lose?

But she could not just sit and watch. If she was the cause of this mess, she needed to clear this up. A thought that gave her the smallest flicker of hope. She needed to find Aladdin. She could just help him escape, and tell him to forget her. It would break her heart, but it was the only way she could think of right now. She looked at Dalia, and grasped her hand, "Dalia, can you take me to the dungeons?" Getting Dalia's frightened gaze in return, Jasmine tried to give the most miserable look she could manage.

"Please."

Dalia looked at the pair of trembling hand grasping hers desperately, and the pleading face of the girl she loved since her childhood.

"Well," She patted Jasmine's hand and sighed. She could never deny her.

Before Jasmine could even say anything in return, the door behind them opened, and the head guard Hakim entered.

"My princess." He bowed, "The grand vizier requested your presence in the dungeon."

Dalia gave Jasmine a frightened look, Jasmine swallowed. What did the grand vizier want with her? Did they just overhead their conversation? Did the vizier just execute Aladdin? Her heart was thumping inside her chest violently. She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself.

"Coming." She told Hakim, still clutching Dalia's hand tightly.

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Aladdin was digging.

He was trapped inside the cave of wonders, better to call it the cave of death right now, thousands of feet underground. He had been digging, Allah knew for how long. He had just lost count of time, hours and days. He felt like he was trapped in the cave for eternity.

"Abu," He threw away a handful of rocks in frustration and threw himself over another bigger boulder nearby. It was so suffocating hot inside, and he was drowned in his own sweat. He was so thirsty his tongue was swollen and he couldn't swallow. He was so hungry he could barely even sit up; most of his scrabbling was done while lying down. He was so tired that the difference between asleep and awake was becoming hard to distinguish.

He was surprised to find himself alive after his tumble into the lava. Fortunately, the carpet caught him in time. But now he was going to die here anyway.

Aladdin looked at the carpet hovering over him, fanning him with his tussles. "Do you know any way out of here?" He asked. It was weird he was asking a carpet questions. Maybe he was losing his mind now. The carpet shook its tassel miserably.

Aladdin looked up. It was pitch black around him, except the occasional flicker of lava underneath. No sign of sunlight. No way out.

Aladdin sighed and closed his eyes. What was he going to do? He tried to think about possible solutions, but there was not any. He thought and thought and finally ended up with a headache. His thoughts turned to the crazy, evil grand vizier and his attempt at murder. He just couldn't figure out why, once powerful vizier had the stupid trinket he wanted, he had felt it necessary to kill Aladdin. He had what he wanted and Aladdin couldn't care less what happened to him and his dumb lamp.

But Aladdin regretted more of his own foolishness. If he was not drowned in his own greed, his temptation to win over the princess, he wouldn't have fallen in with the crazy, power hungry vizier, and he wouldn't be there now, trying to dig himself out of a black, suffocating pit in the middle of the desert.

It was better if he had never met her.

But would his life be complete if he hadn't met her? No. He just could not forget the tenderness in her large brown eyes, the way she laughed to his silly jokes, the way her lips tasted against his.

He just could not forget.

Abu chipped beside him miserably. His fur was lusterless; he looked so hungry and weak. He curled beside him and watched him expectantly.

"I am sorry, Abu." He said to the little monkey. Abu chipped again and wound his tiny arms around his neck. Aladdin wrapped his hand around his small body and closed his eyes.

She would never know what happened to him. She might just forget him like another distraction.

He would just die here alone, with no one to find him, no one to offer him solace, only with her memory burning in his mind.

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Jasmine was nervous. She swallowed again, and escaped a glance from Dalia, trying to lessen the increasing tension inside her. She felt the handmaid's hand squeezing her in the real assurance, but still, an unknown fear hung in her mind. What if she was late? Too late to find out him alive?

The guards stared behind them. She just couldn't imagine what was waiting for her. Why the grand vizier wanted her here? What did he want to show her? She continued to follow Hakim deeper into the dungeons. The guards nodded and stepped back.

The floor was cold underneath her feet, and the dim light of the touches fastened to the wall, casting large shadows across the huge corridor, made the place even more ghostly. Jasmine's heart jumped to her throat as she barely missed stepping on an arm of a man, sprawling across the corridor, drunk, and the comments coming from her behind made her blush harder. Dalia understood that because she wrapped her arm around the princess even more tightly than before. Jasmine looked into her eyes, and in the answer, the handmaid shook her head a little; but none of them uttered a single word. Their hearts were filled with worry about the uncertainty. What was waiting for them….oh, Jasmine was even afraid to imagine….

But there was no turning away right now. She had to find him, help him to escape the prison, never to return. Surely she would miss him, but it was better than have him dead.

Before she knew it, the head guard had stopped and turned to face one criminal's cell. Jasmine tried to peek through, but two guards standing at attention blocked her view. The guards exchanged confused looks when they saw the princess coming, even a bit frightened, Jasmine guessed, but soon they bowed and stepped aside when Hakim ordered, "We're here to meet one prisoner. Would you let us in please?"

"O…of ..course." One of them mumbled while another adjusted the key into the keyhole. The look of uneasiness sent a sense of alarm through Jasmine's body. As soon as the door slid open, Jasmine took one last deep breath, looked up at Dalia one last time, and then hesitantly stepped inside of the cell, butterflies fluttering in her stomach as she heard the bars slide shut behind her.

She blinked in the darkness, still not adjusting with it. Her pupil dilated a bit to adjust the scanty amount of morning light coming from the barred window above, casting a stripped shadow across the stone wall. Blinking several times, she surveyed the area, searching for the prisoner inside.

Suddenly she spotted him, lying at a corner, curled up in a fetal position; his knees almost touched his chin. But instead of her heart soaring with joy, it immediately froze. Because the prison was not who she expected. He looked old, his white hair and beard looked achingly familiar.

Then she realized, and almost stumbled backward with a gasp.

"Baba." A blood curling scream ripped her throat, as she rushed over to his side. Her mind trying to explore the situation of how her father, the sultan had ended here. She placed a hand over his shoulder and shook him. But the old sultan remained unmoving. A few drops of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Oh, Allah! Was he…dead? But how?

"Baba." She cried and turned him over on his back, lifting his head over her lap. His eyes were open, and there was a strange vacant look in his eyes. Jasmine let out a sigh of relief when she felt a weak pulse in his neck.

"Who did this to my father?" She ran towards the bars and lightly shook the door. Locked. From the outside. What was happening? Her mind conjured up the idea of possible rebellions, but who did this? Everyone was so loyal to them. Her eyes searched for Dalia, but she had been already dragged in a corner by other guards. She looked up and found the head guard standing outside the bars. Her eyes met his, only to find silence.

"Hakim, what is happening?" Jasmine screamed, desperately shaking the lock at the door. "What is happening? Let us out, Hakim."

"I am sorry, princess." The head guard bowed his head, nodding sadly, "I am bound to my sultan."

Jasmine couldn't understand what was he was talking about. She desperately looked at other guards, but all of them lowered their heads. "She desperately wondered if she was dreaming, but the cold feeling of the iron bars against her skin was telling her she was not.

"Your sultan?" She looked at her father lying on the ground unmoving, and the figure appearing from the darkness before her. He looked achingly familiar, only his clothes were different.

In fact, Jasmine gasped with realization, he was wearing her father's turban- the sultan's turban.

"Salam, princess." The grand vizier Jafar smiled.

"Jafar…" Jasmine hissed, gripping the bars desperately, her eyes burning, "How could you…" If she was not locked inside, she was sure she would tear the man into pieces.

"I had accomplices." Jafar ignored her glare, and nodded towards the person beside him, "I had a little help, princess."

Jasmine followed his gaze, and her eyes widened as she caught the sight of another person behind him.

No, he was not a person. He looked like a person in the upper half, but his skin color was blue, and his bottom half was….a smoke.

He was not a person….not a creature even. She had heard stories about these mythical beings.

Jasmine's eyes grew wide with realization.

A djin.

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Next chapter- the new sultan